Alexander McCall Smith has written a number of different series, for both adults and children, full of fun, gentle, and humorous stories that are among my favorites. Of all his fun and quirky characters, my favorite is Precious Ramotswe, who started a detective agency in Botswana and called it “the #1 Ladies Detective Agency.” The 14th volume in the series in due to be released in just a few days. I’m looking forward to reading it. In the meantime, I discovered that he has also started a new series about Precious Ramotswe as a young girl. I downloaded the audiobook of the first book in the series, The Great Cake Mystery, and listened to it this morning.

It’s a very kind book for children. The story explains how Precious discovered that she was a “natural born detective.” And it explains why later in life, she calls her detective agency the “#1 Ladies Detective Agency. If I was still teaching (newly retired), my Second Graders would have loved listening to this story. We would have had some very interesting discussions about ‘jumping to conclusions,’ and ‘judging people by their looks,’ and about bullying, and about the power of kindness.

“There is plenty of work for love to do.”
~A. McCall Smith, Tea Time for the Traditionally Built